Visit to Vala's

We spent our first day at Vala's for the fall and boy am I glad that we got a season pass. It was so much fun and we only saw one small part of the farm today.

We arrived about 9:30 and headed straight in to Bunnyville. We petted a few goats on the way past and then enjoyed watching the bunnies hop in and out of their various homes. From there, Kaelyn spotted the ponies and she just HAD to go for a ride. She looks traumatized in the picture because the ride was over and I backed up to take her picture and the lady that operated the ride touched her. :) The horror! Otherwise, she really DID enjoy the pony ride, promise!

From there we crossed over the bridge over to the train area and we took the train for a ride as well. Kaelyn had fun making train noises, though she almost jumped from the train when she saw the pumpkin jumping area. I promised her we would go there next and she was satisfied with that. We rode on and she pointed out every plastic horse along the way.

Once we were done on the train, we headed straight over to the pumpkin jumping area. It's like a big bouncy house with no walls. These big plastic pillow come straight up from the ground. They're surrounded by sand and you take your shoes and socks off, climb on, and start jumping! I didn't think we'd EVER leave that area because Kaelyn was having SO much fun. I made her stop after about 45 minutes to eat a few bites and then back on she went! I finally talked her into leaving to explore a little more, but we were there so long we didn't have much time left! Her favorite thing to do, other than jumping, was sliding down the green side of the jump area and then climbing back up. Of course, she would not do this alone, Mama had to go every time too! Lucky me. I got to have JUST as much fun as she did. We had to wipe our hands and feet with baby wipes when we were done. We were both SO dirty. ACtually, Kaelyn even had dirt on her FOREHEAD, that's how much fun she had!

The same area also has a big vat of corn that kids can crawl around in. This was one of KAelyn's favorite things last year so I wanted to make sure she saw it again this year. She liked it again and jumped right in and ran the corn through her
fingers and dove around for awhile. When she got out I tried to shake some of the corn from her clothes, but we still found about 10 kernels when we got home. :)

After the corn, she was desperate to ride this peddle wheel tractor thing. Well she can't exactly reach the peddles so they gave me a FAMILY sized peddle tractor. So she got to sit pretty up front and I had to do all the peddling alone of this rather large tractor thing. It was REALLY hard to get it started but once we got rolling we did pretty well. We went around the track twice and that was about all I could take. She was worn out from jumping, I was worn out from the peddle tractor! By that time, it was noon and I figured we better head home so she could nap. When we got home, we both completely changed clothes. I washed her face and hands and mine as well. Found lots of corn kernels and even more dust and dirt. That's what the farm is for! We plan to go again next week (or sooner) and I will walk in a different direction so we can explore different things. At least I know one area she LOVES, if nothing else, we can always go back there!

On another note, have you ever heard of planking? Apparently it's some weird phenomenon where people lay flat like a board in strange places and then take pictures. Well, Kaelyn was doing that yesterday. She was going all around the driveway laying down like it was the most
comfortable place in the world. Then she laid down on her picnic table on the porch. I was pretty sure she must have heard about the phenomenon and wanted to participate. :)

As for potty training, Kaelyn's first outing went semi-well. We went to music class and she peed in the car. Once I changed her when we were there and showed her the bathroom, she did okay. Though she went EIGHT times while we were there. And then she peed again in the car on the way home. So apparently she pees a lot in the car, which I didn't know. :) My mom and I took her out the next week to lunch and Target with no diaper and she had no accidents. She also went to the church potluck diaperless and did fine. So she just needs to learn there are bathrooms EVERYWHERE. Sometimes I take her out in a Pull up and at times she will tell me when she needs to go and I can take her. Other times, she probably doesn't and just uses the Pull up. It feels too much like a diaper. She had a pull up on at vala's today and never once told me she had to go. She was having WAY too much fun.

Yesterday during her nap, when she woke up, she was singing away. Jesus Loves Me, her current favorite. When she got done with a couple of renditions of that she said "Mama, where are you?!" How could I resist! :) She's babbling again now. Though none of the words are real at the moment, they're still cute.

Potty Testing and pre-Thanksgiving

Kaelyn is doing really well on the potty! I'm thrilled. Potty training wasn't nearly as hard as I was making it out to be. At least with Kaelyn. She just seemed to decide that that's what she wanted to do and one day, she did it! After I forced her to try it a few times, at least. Now it's a fun thing that she really seems to enjoy. She even cheers for me when I go, aren't I lucky?! :)

My biggest concern was, how do I get her to go in public? I had not yet taken her out in public without a diaper. Partly because I didn't trust her, partly because it was inconvenient, and partly because she had never gone potty on a BIG potty. She only uses her little potty chair. I figured my nest step had to be getting her to go on the BIG potty at home, then I could test things outside the house. So, a couple of nights ago, when she said she had to go (by patting her potty area) I said, okay, let's go on the BIG potty. Before when I've suggested it, she has shaken her head in vehement dismissal of the idea. That day, she said okay! Then trotted in to the BIG potty and went, with help of course. Ever since that night, she only goes on the big potty.

So now, I think I should test her outside the house. Before, I've always taken her diaper off first thing in the morning. We play for an hour or so, take a bath, and get ready. At that point, I put a diaper on her and we go off for the day on our errands, to the zoo, park, wherever. Then, after her nap in the afternoon, I take it off again for the rest of the day. She rarely has an accident.

My plan is to try it out tomorrow. We have music class in the morning and will be somewhere familiar and I know RIGHT where the potty is and it's nearby. Wish us luck!! She still won't poop on the potty, though, big or small. I'm not sure why, but we'll figure it out!

We decided it might be fun to have a Thanksgiving gathering at our house this year on the Friday after Thanksgiving. It will be the big NE/IA game day as well. Anyways, since extending that invitation to BOTH of our families, Sean decided that he should finish the basement! That's great news, though it has taken a lot of his time. He's done a lot of the framing and it has kept him busy. He was working on that this weekend so Kaelyn and I went to Nebraska City with some friends from church for the annual Apple Festival. It rained ALL day, but we had a great time.

We first went to the pumpkin farm where we had lunch and visited the petting zoo. Then Kaelyn was desperate to ride a pony! You know, those little pony rides with a couple of horses that walk in a circle at a VERY slow pace. When I tried to put her on the horse, she clung to me. I had to kind of force her on, but once she was on and realized I wasn't leaving her, she liked it. I walked next to her the whole time and held on to her. She neighed at the horse and seemed to like the ride. Enough that she wanted to go again! But we just watched after that. :)

Then we went to the apple orchard, which was VERY busy. Yes, it was still raining and we were all wet. But it was a fun day. It was also another test because I didn't make Kaelyn nap. We headed out to the festival after church (during which she sat in the sanctuary with me for the WHOLE service, which was surprising enough!) so there was no time for a nap. I kind of hoped she'd fall asleep on the way there, but she didn't. She was too excited. We got tired of the rain by about 3 and headed on home. Kaelyn, of COURSE, fell asleep ONE mile from home, can you believe it? So I drove a little farther so she could sleep for 20 minutes or so. She had QUITE a fit when we arrived home, but after we ate supper, she perked back up again. She slept well overnight so the no napping didn't seem TOO bad. I still don't want to do it on a regular basis. More for me than her. But I've also heard kids that don't nap for several DAYS in a row are worse than one that doesn't nap just one day. Now I know it CAN be done when we REALLY want to, but I will make those times far and few between, trust me!

Her talking is still moving right along. She has started counting a lot of things. She sleeps with two rubber ducks and just before her nap today, she said "One ducky, two ducky" pointing to one then the other. In the basement, she likes to go around counting the framed boards on the wall. She'll get all the way up to 12 before she has to stop and say "Yeah!" and celebrate. She still LOVES the work okay and says "here you go" quite a bit. She also recently started saying "Mama, where are you?" when we plan games inside and I'm on one side of the room and she's on the other. Makes your heart melt, I tell you! She's even more precious when she talks!

More later when I have an update about our diaperless outing! :)

Talking potty training etc update

Kaelyn is becoming more and more fun. Of course, as with all kids, she had her moments, but for the most part, she's pretty fun.

Lately, after her nap, she wants me to pile ALL of her stuffed animals into the bed with her. Then, when she gets out, we play with her piggy bank and then she gets out all of her play jewelry, puts them on, then has to go look in the mirror. Very pretty girl.

She's becoming quite the little talker. She'll repeat almost anything you say, or at least try. More than talking, really, she sings and sings and sings! She'll sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Do you know the Muffin man, Daisy Daisy, Happy Birthday, I'm a Little Teapot and many others. Sometimes she surprises me and sings something I didn't know where she learned. She also LOVES the turtle and beehive songs from music class that have actions to go along with them. As for actual talking, her favorite word right now is Okay. No matter what you ask, she'll say okay, whether she means it or not! :) I'm glad she's not one of those kids that says NO all of the time. In fact, she never does! It's always okay! :) She also likes to say daddy stinky. She has even segued into Mama stinky and Kaelyn stinky. Nice, I know. When she has gas she'll say, I had a little toot. That's pretty cute. And sitting at supper the other night, she made a real mess and she held up her hands and said I'm a mess!! She was right. :) So she's definitely learning her words and she understands EVERYTHING.

We still try to hit the zoo every week and it seems like we see something different everytime we go. We only got to see the polar bear swim once this year, so far though. And the sloth still hasn't moved. Kaelyn's new favorite thing is the jungle trail in the basement of the jungle. We went there once with a friend and now we have to go everytime. We never bothered before because it's impossible to push a stroller through there. Now, we abandon the stroller and she just walks.

As for potty training, it's going surprisingly well. I thought it was going to be really hard because she seemed traumatized over it. In the evening, I let her wander around nude hoping to catch her. She stopped wanting to just go anywhere, but without a diaper on, she didn't know WHERE to go. She would have to go SO badly and just walk circles crying and crying. You could tell she was in pain. This kid is amazing, she can hold it for HOURS. I'm not kidding, she's gone 5-6 hours before naked without going! I can't even go that long! :) So after awhile I just had to force her to sit on the potty and she would go. The first few times it was a HUGE deal and she was not happy about it in the least. But we'd party and give her a treat and make a big deal about it. This last week we were at my parents house and we got out a potty chair there. She was traumatized a few times, but then started to like it. She started to sit down on her own, even! She still wanted me to be RIGHT there and hold her hand, but she was doing really well. Once we got home, it was almost like a game. She wanted to go ALL the time. I'm not kidding, she went 17 times in one 20 minute span. But she always went a few drops so we'd have a party and go through the big rigomorale. Last night, though, she sat on it a few times and went big so that was good. And yesterday morning, she sat on it twice just to toot. Then wanted me to flush it. :) So I think she's doing really well. I keep a diaper on her when we go out and during her nap and overnight, but I think she's headed in the right direction.

We're glad for fall and cooler weather but we sure don't look forward to winter. I don't want to be stuck inside! KAelyn LOVES parks and the zoo and all things outdoors. Even just playing outside at home is a nice option to have. What do you do!

Potty Party

Last night, Kaelyn and I had a potty party!!!!

She tends to enjoy being naked in the evenings and I tend to let her. This can be a problem when she has to go potty, however. Last night, I took her diaper off at like 6pm. So I decided to follow her around EVERYWHERE with the potty chair. If she needed to go, I was GOING to catch her! :) Or so I hoped.

So, at about 7:45, we were in the playroom and she tinkled. I didn't catch her. She gave no indication she had to go and it happened fast and that was that. Bummer, the potty chair was RIGHT there.

Then we moved into the family room and she was poking around down there again and I said, "Kaelyn, do you need to go potty again?" She said yes so I told her to sit right down on her potty chair and go...and she DID!! I couldn't BELIEVE IT! It was a small little turd, but it was a poop ON the potty and I was SO excited.

We had quite the little potty party. We got up and danced and jumped and shouted. Kaelyn was pretty excited by the little party. I also gave her a few pieces of candy and then we partied some more. You have to start somewhere!! Can't wait for our next potty party!

Branson Complete

We didn't make it out the door by 8am as we'd hoped, but we didn't do too bad! Kaelyn didn't even get up until well after 8. Both Sean and I showered and we even did two loads of laundry. The shower and laundry room are RIGHT by the closet where she slept, but nothing seemed to bother her that morning! I woke her from a dead sleep but she was excited to see me since I brought her her breakfast.

We made it on the road by 9 and had an uneventful drive. I have no idea where we stopped, but Sean dropped us at McDonald's for lunch and then went to get gas and drive through Arby's. Kaelyn dragged her diaper bag ALL the way around the restaurant...twice. Just for fun, I guess.

She only slept about 45 minutes of the drive, so that made it seem long, but she was pretty good. She watched some videos, looked at every book we brought, and played anything else we gave her. She ate her lunch in the car so that gave her something to do too. We got home at 4:30 or so after 7 1/2 hours in the car with one 20 minute break. It was worth the drive, we had a blast.

And now...we wait. 2 years until another big trip. Wisconsin Dells here we come! 2013!!!

Branson Trip-Friday

Our last full day of vacation that doesn't involve driving a looong distance. What a bummer! After we got up and ready this morning, Sean Kaelyn and I went to a few t-shirt shops to do a little shopping. We didn't find much in the short amount of time we had, but we got a pretty red shirt for Kaelyn that has Branson written in sparkly rhinestones or something. She liked it. After that short outing we had a quick lunch and everyone but my parents and Kaelyn headed to the theater for the Noah show. I had heard it was 2 1/2 hours long and there was no way I wanted to pay that much for a ticket and not get to see it so I figured it was best to leave Kaelyn behind. My parents are staying an extra day anyways so they can see it on their own then.

We arrived early at 12:15 for the behind the scenes tour, which started at 1. It was a really interesting tour that took us, well, behind the scenes. We got to see some of the sets and learn a little about how they built them. We got to stand on the stage and see some of their marks and we even got to see inside the turtle costume. The show uses live, animatronic, and costumed-people animals. The information we got on the tour made us curious to see the show. It takes them 3-5 years to build the sets, get the script and songs written etc. It's quite a production. After seeing it, we can understand why. And we also understand why it is the most expensive show in the area!

After the back stage tour, we had an hour before the show so we went to a nearby craft mall to shop around. It was lame so we didn't do much shopping, but at least it was something to do and somewhere to go for a little while.

Then, it was time for the show. The sets were simply amazing. We couldn't take pictures, of course, because it's all copywrited. But they were SO neat. They had live animals running around on stage from time to time and they led them up and down the aisles at times too. The very end of the first act was Noah and his family loading the ark so there were a lot of animals involved in that. Then, at the beginning of the first act, the revealed the set for the interior of the ark. It had stuff all the way around us on both sides. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen, set wise. The main level was real animals like camels, sheep, goats, ducks, pigs. The second and third levels were animatroinic like elephants, giraffes, penguins, etc. There were also real people in gorilla and monkey costumes. There was so much to see it was hard to know where to look.

The play itself was pretty cool and the music was nice as well, but the sets really stole the show. The theater group itself is really neat, it's all Christian based and their mission is just to spread the word of God. On the backstage tour the guide said that they have understudies and back ups for every role but it's not a competitive thing. The understudies get to go on at least once a week and be on stage because it's not about who's better, it's a higher purpose. I thought that was really neat. The whole atmosphere was very cohesive with a single purpose and it was obvious they had their stuff together and their aim in the right place. It was called Sight and Sound Theatre and I would love to see more of their plays in the future.

After the big show, we came home and ate a quick supper, took a picture in front of the house, and went swimming! It was after 7 when we got there, but it was our last chance, so we went anyways. It sounded like Kaelyn had a great nap and ate a really good supper so I figured she'd be good to go for awhile. She had a blast at the pool again and it was hard to leave.

We hope to get things packed up and hit the road first thing in the morning. We'll see how that goes! I sure don't want to go home. It'll be nice to get things organized and back in place at home, but I don't really want vacation to end. It's nice not being alone and having lots of different things to entertain Kaelyn...and me. :) But what do you do, vacation only comes every so often! Take what you can get and enjoy it while it lasts! We sure have enjoyed this one!

Branson Trip-Thursday

Kaelyn woke up rough again on Thursday due to duck loss. I need to chain those things to her wrist or something! It was a bit before 7 and I wasn't quite ready to wake up myself, but what do you do! Once she had her duck and rolled around awhile all was well. She actually got ready before most people, but once everyone was ready, we headed back to Silver Dollar City for another fun-filled day!

This time, we went to the small kids area first with the little rides. Kaelyn actually rode the frog ride with me after watching my niece and nephew ride. She just sat there the whole time, totally expressionless. I think I had more fun than her, but she didn't hate it and wasn't scared, so that was nice! She didn't seem to want to go on again, but the one time we went was great. :)

We explored a little and then it was time for the big stunt dog show that my niece was REALLY looking forward to. We all attended that and Kaelyn, again, was rather afraid at first. Before the show started she had fun going up and down the stairs but they started the show with some strobe lights and the dogs had on costumes with lights so the stadium was mostly dark. You couldn't even really see that there were dogs and it was something TOTALLY new for Kaelyn and she was just afraid. The crowd was cheering loudly on and off too so that wasn't helping. She wasn't loud about her scared-ness, though, she just burrowed her head into me and cried a little bit. After they turned the lights up and we could SEE the dogs, she seemed to enjoy it more. She started moving around, quite a bit, really, and pointing at the dogs some. She giggles a few times. Those dogs could do some neat tricks! They rode tandum bikes, skateboards, did obstacle courses, all sorts of things.

After the dog show we had lunch and headed back out for more fun! Some of them rode a water shooting boat ride, which I got to ride later and got TOTALLY soaked on. It was a fun ride, though. Something different for a water ride and pretty fun. It was sure nice that Sean and Kaelyn had a good time wandering, playing, and exploring so I could go on a few rides here and there!

There was another kids area that we didn't hit the last day we were there. Part of it was Geyser Gulch, which had squirting water, but then there was a large treehouse with all sorts of entertaining things. There were stairs to climb and slides to go down and all these foam balls to shoot at targets. Kaelyn's favorite part, other than the slides, was the foam ball pit. It was actually a small box that was just corralling the balls. I think you were supposed to take balls FROM the box and shoot them etc. But Kaelyn wanted to get IN the box and why not! She had a great time rolling around in there. She also enjoyed shooting the balls with Sean, once she realized how that worked.

We ended up back at the area that had the slide and bounce place for littler kids eventually and Kaelyn had a GREAT time there again as well. She did a lot of bouncing and went down the slide a few times. Then we went to meet the rest of the group, who had gone BACK to the dog show. My niece got a wax figure made of her hand, something she was fascinated with the day before. Then most of the group went to some farm area while my dad and I rode Thunderation, a wooden roller coaster. I didn't want to go on one that went upside down and this one, from what we could tell on the map, didn't. It was a nice roller coaster, I liked it a lot. It didn't have any major big drops and didn't go upside down either. Just lots of crazy turns and fast speeds. It was just my style. We actually rode it twice, don't tell. The lines were short and my dad's a big kid. :)

Once we met up with the group again we headed out for the day, returned to the house for a steak dinner and some went swimming while Kaelyn simmered down for bed. I'm impressed with how well she did over those two days at the amusement park, really. The second day was even better than the first. The first day she was kind of having fits when I wouldn't carry her, but the second day, I think she realized where we were and that it was a fun place etc and she knew how things worked. She didn't sleep either time, though she seemed tired for many parts of the day. But she didn't do too bad having no nap. Probably because she was highly entertained the whole time. The not napping caught up with her the next day last time, so we'll see what tomorrow is like for her! It was a special event that I do NOT plan to let happen often! She WILL nap from here on out! :) I hope. She better not realize she can get away with it and still survive. I don't know that I could survive many days of THAT much action with her in a row. But for vacation, it worked.

We're looking forward to tomorrow because it's our big Noah's Ark show day. Everyone but my parents and Kaelyn are going. I didn't want to take her to a show THAT long she may or may not like. So my parents will go Saturday on their own after we all leave. The show will take up much of the day, but we'll have the morning to do some other things.

This week is going really fast, I must say. I look forward to catching up on things at home, but after that, I think Kaelyn and I will be bored being all alone again next week with just our normal things to do! What do you do! Back to the real world!